Expansion of the target of DNA test for the remains of war dead If there is an application for a bereaved family, the test will be carried out.

From October, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will expand the scope of DNA testing to identify the remains of the victims of the Pacific War.

In all areas where the ashes were collected, we will carry out an appraisal if there is an application for the bereaved family, even if there are no clues such as leftovers.

About 2.4 million people were killed overseas due to the Pacific War, including Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and the country has collected the remains of 1.28 million of them.

DNA testing was started in 2003, and the ashes whose identities have been identified are returned to the bereaved family.

However, at the beginning, we limited the appraisal to the remains that have clues that lead to their identities, such as finding leftover items such as seals and fountain pens with names.

This is because it takes a lot of labor and time to perform a DNA test on all the remains.

Under these circumstances, only about 1,200 people have been identified by DNA testing so far.

Recently, the number of remains of remains has decreased, and some bereaved families have asked us to expand the scope.

For this reason, the country has switched to a policy of broadly appraising the remains found in Okinawa four years ago in 2017, and in the Republic of Kiribati in Iwo Jima and the Pacific Ocean from last year, without any clues.

As a result, the identities of the remains of two people on Iwo Jima and two people on Kiribati have been identified so far.

Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare In response to this, in all regions in which the sample is collected remains in the prospect of the year in October are stored, has announced a policy to carry out a DNA test if there is a request from the bereaved family even without a clue ..

On the other hand, there are many bereaved families who do not know the DNA testing system itself, and in Okinawa, where a trial recruitment was conducted, about 190,000 people died in the war, but 1,130 bereaved families applied for in the last four years.

It is necessary for the national government not only to expand the scope but also to make the appraisal system well known and to widely call on the bereaved families to apply.

Bereaved family "Returning the remains revived my memory"

In areas where DNA testing was started without any clues such as leftovers, the identity of the ashes has been identified and some cases have returned to the bereaved family.

Sadayuki Nomura (92) of Nagasaki City lost his older brother Masatoshi (23 years old at the time), who was eight years older, at the Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati, a fierce battlefield of the Pacific War.

In September, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare sent me a guide to DNA testing of the remains found in Tarawa Atoll, and I responded to it.

As a result, Masatoshi's remains were confirmed, and in February, he returned to his younger brother, Sadayuki.

Masatoshi was the eldest son of five siblings, and because his father died early, he went to work without going to school to support the family.

It is said that he was a substitute for his father for his younger brother Sadayuki.

Masatoshi belonged to the land combat unit of the Sasebo Naval District of the Navy, and set sail at the age of 21 in 1945.

At the time of seeing off, Sadayuki shouted, "You shouldn't die if your brother died. Please come back." He raised his hand and responded.

But that was the last thing for the family.

Mr. Sadayuki says that the return of his brother's remains has brought back memories of his childhood.

Mr. Sadayuki Nomura said, "I couldn't prepare a school bag until the day before the entrance ceremony because I wasn't financially blessed, but my brother bought a school bag and delivered it to my room the night before. Such a memory revived, and even now, when I look at the school bag section, I remember my kind brother and tears come up. "

On top of that, "I realized that my brother went to war and died in the scorching sun of a distant country only after the remains were returned. I finally felt that the war was over in the true sense of the word. I was talking.

Voices calling for further support from the national and local governments

On the other hand, there are voices calling for further support from the national and local governments, saying that simply expanding the scope of DNA testing will not promote the return of ashes.

Tetsuji Hamada, who volunteers to collect ashes and return them to the bereaved family in Okinawa, has witnessed the reality that many bereaved families do not know the DNA testing system itself.

In January, the identity of one of the remains that Mr. Hamada collected in Okinawa was revealed by DNA testing, but even at this time, the bereaved family did not know the testing system and Mr. Hamada explained from scratch. It is said that he helped with the preparation of the application form.

From last year to this year, Mr. Hamada collected the remains of nine people in multiple districts in southern Okinawa.

As a result of examining the materials at that time, it was found that people from Hokkaido and Tohoku may have died in their respective places, and now they are visiting their bereaved families one by one.

On the 8th of this month, I visited Noboru Kawamura (89), who lives in Hokkaido and lost his uncle and cousin.

During the war, Mr. Kawamura lived in the same house as the two who died, and even after the war ended, he continued to wait for the remains of his remains.

He knew through the press that there was a DNA test system, but he didn't know who the target was and what he should do to get the test.

After receiving an explanation from Mr. Hamada, I finally understood the mechanism and created an application for DNA testing.

Mr. Kawamura said, "I went to the government office once to hear about the DNA test, but I couldn't get an explanation that I could understand. I couldn't find the remains and thought,'I think I'm still alive.' Partly because of that, I'm not really accepting that I was killed in action. I hope I can somehow identify the ashes. "

Volunteer Tetsuji Hamada said, "The overwhelming majority of bereaved families do not know the DNA testing system in detail and do not know what to do. Since the country has sent it to the war, it is responsible for returning the remains to the bereaved family. I think that the current situation is that volunteers like me cannot move forward unless they go around to the bereaved family and talk to them. Since there are limits to such activities, the national government and municipalities are responsible for each bereaved family. If you don't talk to them directly, I don't think they will be well known. "